Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm a little John and this
Speaker 1: is cut to It. Good do It, Good do it.
Speaker 1: Let's get down to do it. Good do it. We
Speaker 1: asked the questions you always want to know, but no
Speaker 1: one ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard
Speaker 1: about it, then we're about to left you now it's all.
Speaker 1: It's my pleasure to welcome to the Cut to It Podcast.
Speaker 1: One of the greatest corners in NFL history, the top
Speaker 1: corner of his era. A guy that, uh made a
Speaker 1: lot of receivers like myself, UH, study a lot of
Speaker 1: film from the University of Georgia. He goes, He's the
Speaker 1: only guy I know that actually goes by his nickname
Speaker 1: throughout his life, that people know him and you say
Speaker 1: Champ and people go Bailey, right. Welcome to the Cut
Speaker 1: to a podcast. Friend and also a guy that I
Speaker 1: I studied a lot of film on going against Champ. Bailey.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it. I like to start off. We we're just
Speaker 1: gonna get to some just some ice breakers. Man. Let
Speaker 1: you let you settle down so you'll know what kind
Speaker 1: of uh really what what this is today today is
Speaker 1: all about you. Um, it's not about what uh people
Speaker 1: think of you any of whatever they may think or soon.
Speaker 1: It's just we're just gonna cut right to it and
Speaker 1: just talk about who you are. Champ Bailey in New Jersey.
Speaker 1: You know where you're from and all that stuff. But man,
Speaker 1: what's what's some of your favorite vacation spots. I know
Speaker 1: you like to be light skinned, so go ahead and
Speaker 1: tell us some of your favorite vacation spots. You know, Well,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me, bro, I mean, you know how
Speaker 1: all about you. But we'll get to that, I think.
Speaker 1: Let me, let me let's just say, I hate leaving
Speaker 1: the country. So when we tell you so you so
Speaker 1: you are so Southern continued, You're exactly right already no,
Speaker 1: I already know. You know, the wife got you leaving
Speaker 1: the country. That's what that's the problem. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: a little old fashioned to the point when i'm kind
Speaker 1: of I get stuck in my ways. You know. I
Speaker 1: like things to be a little routine, you know, I
Speaker 1: like like to know it to expect. So when I
Speaker 1: leave the country, one thing that's the staple in my
Speaker 1: you know, My life is food. And if I don't
Speaker 1: know what type of food I'm gonna eat, don't don't it,
Speaker 1: don't even don't even go there. But you already know
Speaker 1: like that, that's that's this, This conversation is always going
Speaker 1: is going veer right right now because so you're telling
Speaker 1: me basically, you're a horrible person to travel with because
Speaker 1: all you're gonna do is complain about the food. I
Speaker 1: tell you what, it has a big part of what
Speaker 1: big That was a roundaby way of saying, yo, yeah
Speaker 1: someone you know, Okay, alright, so let's all right, let's
Speaker 1: let's let's change it. Then let's let's open minded to food.
Speaker 1: But I love cat what so tell me some of
Speaker 1: your favorite restaurants? Then, favorite restaurants? Uh, breakfast? You know,
Speaker 1: breakfast is a big part of my neal. I love
Speaker 1: this restaurant called Snooze that uh colly moved to Atlanta.
Speaker 1: I think they started in Denver, and you know it's
Speaker 1: a big and I love a good steak, so steakhouse.
Speaker 1: You know, I ain't like cracker barrel. What's what some
Speaker 1: of your favorite I like cracker Barrel, but it's not
Speaker 1: that was that was that was a softball pitch that
Speaker 1: you should have let go, but you want to try
Speaker 1: to knock it out of the park. Yeah, like I
Speaker 1: hoped too, don't know. No, not so you're I'm lot
Speaker 1: right now and I would not going and I would
Speaker 1: not going there and eat their food. I just yeah,
Speaker 1: you were you over there talking about Oh, let me
Speaker 1: get up, let me get those unlimited buttermilk pancakes. I'm
Speaker 1: about to cancel our sponsorship. And I the reason I
Speaker 1: say that is, um man, I've I've traveled, you know,
Speaker 1: I've traveled with a lot of a lot of my folks,
Speaker 1: my some my homeboys, you know obviously with my fami
Speaker 1: and one of my boys. I'm not gonna one of
Speaker 1: my homeboys. I'm not gonna name drop them. But we
Speaker 1: went to London and this dude complained the whole time. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, he complained and you know he ends up
Speaker 1: eating but McDonald's of course pizza hug. No. So I'm
Speaker 1: not that guy. Okay, thank you, I'm not that guy.
Speaker 1: My thing is, you can find good food, you just
Speaker 1: gotta pay for it, you know. It's just yeah, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna run up on you know, a local restaurant
Speaker 1: that you used to like you do back home. But
Speaker 1: name some of those local restaurants back home that that
Speaker 1: make you not want to leave the country. Well, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of variety. So there's this Greek spot called
Speaker 1: zeus Uh Greek food? What kind of barbecue spot in Buckhead?
Speaker 1: I live in Atlanta, by the way, so uh fat
Speaker 1: mats um. Yes, it's varsity. You go to varsity? No, okay, good,
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure I'm checking. I'm checking.
Speaker 1: I'm in a file cabinet, checking my reference. Make just
Speaker 1: make sure because you can't be you can't be a
Speaker 1: judger of food and then find out you'll go to
Speaker 1: a Checkers a rally or you know some of that stuff.
Speaker 1: It's funny you bring up varsity. I went to use.
Speaker 1: We had a varsity basically on campus. I might have said, oh,
Speaker 1: I know, I was just in Atlanta. My show was
Speaker 1: playing basketball, so I was just in Atlanta. So that's
Speaker 1: why when you said that. And see this is right up,
Speaker 1: this was right up my alley. So that's I've just
Speaker 1: been I've been sitting on uh was that two eight,
Speaker 1: five forty five. I've been sitting on all those highways
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, running up my toll. Uh quick pass, running
Speaker 1: up my quick pass. It was a forty dollar toll weekend.
Speaker 1: Or playing basketball. My someone's playing basketball. So uh, I'm
Speaker 1: very much. I know a little bit about atlant of
Speaker 1: fresh in my mind of all the air quotes, great
Speaker 1: restaurants out there. Yeah, yeah, the thing. Yes, you better
Speaker 1: know somebody who knows some spots. Right. Oh yeah, because
Speaker 1: we walked in a few places. We walked in a
Speaker 1: few places and we walked straight on. I was like, nope, yeah,
Speaker 1: because I was over there by h I was over
Speaker 1: there by lake Point, the Lake Point facility. Oh see
Speaker 1: you way up north, that's that's like bro, I didn't
Speaker 1: get to pick the location. I'm sorry. Well, here's the
Speaker 1: thing that's that's up north. That's more of Uh it's
Speaker 1: kind of touristy because they have a lot of events,
Speaker 1: sporting events up there. And you know, it's funny. I
Speaker 1: was up there not long ago, and I realized this
Speaker 1: is not the suburbs of Atlanta, like this is this
Speaker 1: is the country that So you were in Georgia, you
Speaker 1: weren't in Atlanta. It's a difference. Well, I stayed. I
Speaker 1: stayed in midtown, so I had to drive back and forth?
Speaker 1: Oh wow, who did who did that to you? That's
Speaker 1: the long drive we use our marry our points brother,
Speaker 1: of course. Of course, listen, I never stayed in an
Speaker 1: area where there's a red roof fan. If there's a
Speaker 1: red roof fan in that proximity standard and standard, I
Speaker 1: just I ain't. I don't have no standards, and I'm
Speaker 1: still not standing in the red roof and I'm just
Speaker 1: not doing it here, you bro knowing you from Georgia,
Speaker 1: So let's just get into it. Where are you from
Speaker 1: in a place you call your hometown? Uh? Folks in Georgia,
Speaker 1: South Georgia, small folk? Yeah? How many? How many stoplights
Speaker 1: on street? And street? Us? Four to five stoplights? We
Speaker 1: might have gotten another one since I left, Um, but
Speaker 1: very small, I mean less than five thousand people. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: so oh so there's a chip, there's a champ Bailey Road. Then, well,
Speaker 1: up until I think two years ago, they did name
Speaker 1: a street after me. They named the football stadium after me.
Speaker 1: So things have happened last few years. You said, oh
Speaker 1: up to two all right, So I thought they gave
Speaker 1: you that. I thought they gave it to you. They
Speaker 1: gave it to someone else. No, No, it took me
Speaker 1: getting into the Hall of Fame for all those things
Speaker 1: and materialized. Okay, all right, and so what growing up
Speaker 1: growing up out there? What what did you experience growing
Speaker 1: up as as as young champ oh man. You know,
Speaker 1: one thing about where we were from is you realize
Speaker 1: you don't have a lot of opportunities to get get out.
Speaker 1: And when I say get out, it's not like we're
Speaker 1: running from you know, bad people or things like that.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a culture in my hometown that's just
Speaker 1: not sustainable for a young black man. For example. You
Speaker 1: know where I grew up. I mean, my dad is
Speaker 1: point out restaurants and things that he couldn't go into
Speaker 1: when he was a kid. Right, you know, Jim Crow
Speaker 1: was real and you see the results of that. And
Speaker 1: you know, I could go on about a lot of
Speaker 1: different avenues that my boys went down, you know, compared
Speaker 1: to mine, because the traps were there. You know, you
Speaker 1: get in trouble, you're getting the system. That's what you're
Speaker 1: known for. So nobody has hope for you. And when
Speaker 1: you know, if you don't have people pumping you up
Speaker 1: and telling you that you could do things, and you
Speaker 1: don't see a lot of great examples. That trap is fat.
Speaker 1: You know, it's easy for it got to go off
Speaker 1: to college and come right back home because family makes
Speaker 1: it easy. The town makes it easy. Oh, come back
Speaker 1: and work at the mill with your dad and your uncle,
Speaker 1: and but those are dead in jobs because there's no
Speaker 1: growth there. You're just a worker. So with that limited mentality,
Speaker 1: it's easy to get trapped there and and and really
Speaker 1: not go anywhere. You know, you end up there. I
Speaker 1: can go back home and see people that are doing
Speaker 1: the same things they did when I was in high school,
Speaker 1: you know. So you know, I never wanted that, you know,
Speaker 1: it just took a few good examples to kind of
Speaker 1: get me on the right track and see that I
Speaker 1: had at the possibility of getting out and staying out
Speaker 1: and then being able to turn around and bring some
Speaker 1: value back home. That's that's what it was like growing up. Man.
Speaker 1: It was tough, but you know, we had each other.
Speaker 1: We leaned on each other, my brothers, you know, some
Speaker 1: of my boys that actually went on to do some
Speaker 1: good things. But for the most part, man, I can
Speaker 1: name a lot of guys that are in and out
Speaker 1: of the system that I grew up with. I mean
Speaker 1: did a lot of dirt with and yeah they're still
Speaker 1: my boys, but boy, they went down the wrong path.
Speaker 1: I remember watching your your Hall of Fame speech. What
Speaker 1: I thought was remarkable in you uh thus far you know,
Speaker 1: before COVID, before a lot of the racial tension, a
Speaker 1: lot of the conversations you and Ladinium are actually, I
Speaker 1: believe the only two modern guys that I I saw
Speaker 1: that implement I think uh, um straight hand as well
Speaker 1: a little bit um. But you guys really addressed um
Speaker 1: being black man and and and what it impacted and
Speaker 1: what you saw um being young man. Because you guys
Speaker 1: grew up in the South, in the heat of the
Speaker 1: South where you know, like you said, Jim Crow and
Speaker 1: all of those things. What was that process like for you?
Speaker 1: And how did you come to that resolution that at
Speaker 1: the most important moment in your life, your your football career,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, in your football career, and you took that
Speaker 1: time to address something that a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: necessarily believe exists. Yeah, and that's and you say, they'm
Speaker 1: outful there a lot of people don't even know it's real,
Speaker 1: you know, And I think you know, one of one
Speaker 1: of the things when we get a platform. I think
Speaker 1: we all kind of have an idea of what people
Speaker 1: should do with their platform, right, But I think it's
Speaker 1: very unfair to expect young man like say, if I'm playing,
Speaker 1: if I'm in my twins, I don't expect any of
Speaker 1: these young guys to say a whole lot, right, Why
Speaker 1: is it their responsibility? But now I'm a grown man
Speaker 1: looking back being able to reflect. Now I have this
Speaker 1: stage and this platform to really speak on it without
Speaker 1: real repercussions, Like that's what you worry about by not speaking?
Speaker 1: It's like, dang, what people gonna do to me? Now
Speaker 1: I jeopard out of my career. It's unfortunate, but that's
Speaker 1: the world we live in. So now I'm looking back like, Okay,
Speaker 1: well i gotta say something like this is something that
Speaker 1: I really care about, something that I experienced, right, So,
Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to be as real and candid
Speaker 1: as possible, but get people to understand, like, it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what you think. This is my experience, this is
Speaker 1: what I see, this is what I deal with, and
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people just like so I
Speaker 1: just want people to listen, you know, just pay attention,
Speaker 1: have some compassion and some sympathy for what people go
Speaker 1: through all is of where they grow up. When you're
Speaker 1: a black man in this country, there's a certain it's
Speaker 1: a certain way you gotta walk around, right, There's a
Speaker 1: certain way you gotta carry yourself, you know, and we
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of room for error. And I
Speaker 1: saw that in real time growing up, still see it
Speaker 1: to this day. And I just thought it was important
Speaker 1: to hear those feelings and you know, and and let
Speaker 1: people hear what I thought. What are some of the
Speaker 1: things that you experienced off the field that really shall
Speaker 1: shaped you to you come across You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't know you, but you're not as quiet
Speaker 1: as you present yourself. You you you you're well round it.
Speaker 1: You're you're you know, you're intelligent, you're smart, But you
Speaker 1: also quietly. You know, you you talk, you chit chat,
Speaker 1: you you go at guys. How were you able to
Speaker 1: keep that clean cut image? Honest? You don't know? You know,
Speaker 1: you know we were flung out together. We've been around
Speaker 1: each other, so you you know I am I mean,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm about I do. But it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, I think I always wanted to just be
Speaker 1: a professional, right you know, my idols were dal Green,
Speaker 1: Dion Sanders, Michael straighthand Bruce Smith. One thing about these guys,
Speaker 1: you get them in the room one on one talk
Speaker 1: man talk about anything and everything to learn things you
Speaker 1: didn't know. And I and I carried myself that same
Speaker 1: way because when I'm in a professional setting, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be a pro. Like in the in the locker room,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna be a pro. I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: a best team and I could be. That's just how
Speaker 1: it is in my job setting and when I'm around
Speaker 1: other professionals, that's just the way I carry myself. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I could let I can let It was laid that
Speaker 1: just I guess the whole saying let your head down
Speaker 1: a little bit. You know, I definitely do that. But
Speaker 1: you know, I still know when my bread is buttered,
Speaker 1: and it's the way I carry myself, present myself, and
Speaker 1: more opportunities come to me now because of that. So
Speaker 1: I feel like that investment in my personality and the
Speaker 1: way I carried myself is really paying off. How exhausting
Speaker 1: was that though? It wasn't you know, it was just
Speaker 1: it was who it was, really who I was because
Speaker 1: it was I did unconsciously in high school. I mean
Speaker 1: you could and as any of my coaches. I mean
Speaker 1: sometimes I thought I was a bad kid, but then
Speaker 1: I can I look over to the left and to
Speaker 1: the right and like, oh ship, I'm not doing what
Speaker 1: these guys are doing. You know. I'm actually showing up
Speaker 1: the work every day, no matter what we did right
Speaker 1: before real to go. You know. So I always accountable.
Speaker 1: So I think that's where I hang my hat. I
Speaker 1: just want to be accountable and available. And that's really
Speaker 1: really what I live by. I mean even in business today.
Speaker 1: I just want to be accountable, available and just a
Speaker 1: man of my word. And that's and it just came natural.
Speaker 1: And then over time as I got older, I just learned,
Speaker 1: like there's a certain way you care yourself. I'm a
Speaker 1: listener first before I opened my mouth, because I just
Speaker 1: know I don't know it. I love cut to It,
Speaker 1: and I love it even more when you download us
Speaker 1: and subscribe, and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie,
Speaker 1: where where at that's at? Cut to It on Instagram?
Speaker 1: What about Twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook? Cut to
Speaker 1: It featuring Steve Smith singr. What about online? And you
Speaker 1: can follow us at cut to it podcast dot com,
Speaker 1: where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to
Speaker 1: us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my
Speaker 1: answers questions. Uh yeah, I got all my questions answered.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm here for, a brother, cut to a
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. So you you were with the that
Speaker 1: we call them the Washington Commanders. Now you know they
Speaker 1: are correctors if we don't, they correct us as if
Speaker 1: they've been the commanders the whole time and they just
Speaker 1: last year. But then you go to Denver. You have
Speaker 1: been with Darryl Green, You've been with Dion, You had
Speaker 1: been in the nation's capital, and you know, you stayed
Speaker 1: in the South, but then you move, you know, closer
Speaker 1: to the South. But then you move to Denver. Tell
Speaker 1: us that to explain that transition between a little bit
Speaker 1: of comfort because you know, live growing up in growing
Speaker 1: up in Georgia. You know, you live if you live
Speaker 1: in Florida, you're pretty if you live in Florida or Georgia,
Speaker 1: South North Carolina, Texas, I mean Tennessee, Alabama. You kind
Speaker 1: of stay in those areas, right you you you drive
Speaker 1: up and I mean living in North Carolina now twenty
Speaker 1: some years. I've been Atlanta, Georgia, Tennessee, Jacksonville. Somehow, some way,
Speaker 1: I'm staying over there. But then you go to Denver.
Speaker 1: That had to be a little bit of an adjustment. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: and you know, you gotta think I'm twenty five at
Speaker 1: the time. Yea at the time. Nevertheless, left the East Coast.
Speaker 1: So the first my first impression of Denver, when that
Speaker 1: thought of going there came about, it was, damn, it snows.
Speaker 1: It Just that's the first thing came to my mind.
Speaker 1: And you know, but then I started thinking about the team,
Speaker 1: and I know I could play anywhere in anyweather, so
Speaker 1: I wasn't I didn't really like settled on that too much.
Speaker 1: I started thinking about the team. I'm like, damn, but
Speaker 1: they're always in the playoffs, y'all gotta And then they
Speaker 1: started talking about, you know, well they might trade you
Speaker 1: for Clinton Porter's and I'm like, damn, I like Clinton Porters.
Speaker 1: Can we keep him and trade somebody else? You know,
Speaker 1: That's that's my thoughts in my mind, you know, because
Speaker 1: I'm young, and I'm hungry, and I'm trying to get paid. See,
Speaker 1: I never really wanted to leave Washington to be honest,
Speaker 1: I understood at that point in my career the impact
Speaker 1: of that market, you know, being in the NFC East,
Speaker 1: I mean you got all the big market teams Philly,
Speaker 1: New York, Dallas, all the all the teams that are
Speaker 1: in the top ten as far as value and and fans.
Speaker 1: I mean, there is no fan base at the time
Speaker 1: that was more loyal than the Washington fan base. Even
Speaker 1: to this day, I get people come up to me.
Speaker 1: More Washington fans than Denver fans come up to me
Speaker 1: and talk about that trade because they just they just
Speaker 1: had more history there. I mean, when I got to Denver,
Speaker 1: they finally got their first Hall of Famer. She watched it.
Speaker 1: That had several by the time I got so so
Speaker 1: the organizations were in different places. But one thing that
Speaker 1: was different is the owner in Denver was like night
Speaker 1: and day from the owner in Washington. Dan Snyder didn't
Speaker 1: draft me. And to get used to the fact that
Speaker 1: somebody didn't want me in my prime, I didn't understand it. Right.
Speaker 1: I had been the four straight Pro Bowls, I'm twenty five,
Speaker 1: I'm young, I'm hitting my prime and this dude didn't
Speaker 1: want to This dude didn't want to pay me. I'm like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: there's nobody outside of Darrell Green the more successful at
Speaker 1: the cornerback position in this franchise on a consistent level.
Speaker 1: You had, you had guys coming in and out, but
Speaker 1: you didn't have anyone like it was Dell Green that
Speaker 1: had been there, uh since the dawn of time? Yeah,
Speaker 1: right right. And then there was obviously Dion he was older,
Speaker 1: he had you know, he had retired and came back.
Speaker 1: And then there was you. Yeah, yeah, so it it didn't.
Speaker 1: I never got used to the fact that somebody didn't
Speaker 1: want me at that time. I mean, I'm like, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna find somebody else like me? And they tried,
Speaker 1: you know, but I knew that I was a different
Speaker 1: type of player, and I knew I should have been wanted.
Speaker 1: I asked for a certain amount of money. They laughed
Speaker 1: at it, turned around and asked Mike Shanahan for it
Speaker 1: in Denver, and he smiled and said, no problem. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's all I needed. Somebody that wants me.
Speaker 1: He's gonna let me do what I do. I mean,
Speaker 1: there was no better transition for me in my career
Speaker 1: than going to Denver. The best thing that ever happened.
Speaker 1: Think about this. You just said that you were in
Speaker 1: your prime and one team did and one team didn't.
Speaker 1: You've done some analysts work, You've been around the game
Speaker 1: for a long wanted. The things that is always remarkable
Speaker 1: about the NFL is how statistically you can be in
Speaker 1: one category. However, you asked five different coaches on five
Speaker 1: different teams, and they all have five different opinions, and
Speaker 1: most of them are negative when evaluating when evaluating product,
Speaker 1: like you were a product. Let's be honest, you're a
Speaker 1: problemt and Chap Bailey is in his prime playing well
Speaker 1: not not really not like you're doing. I hate right,
Speaker 1: And there's only a few teams that valued you for
Speaker 1: what you were. Yeah, and the team that had you
Speaker 1: that was reaping the benefits from it, I didn't think
Speaker 1: you're worth it, yeah, which is baffling, you know. And
Speaker 1: and my thing is regardless of if I'm worth it
Speaker 1: or not, or you think that it's it's I understand.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you got needs, you got you got certain old
Speaker 1: you gotta feel right like there's it's always gonna be
Speaker 1: that factor. But to me, they had two years to
Speaker 1: get a deal done with me, right, Like they had
Speaker 1: two years they saw me up close personal how I
Speaker 1: work and to be, you know, putting that on full
Speaker 1: display and auditioning for them every day the way I did,
Speaker 1: and for them to come to conclusion, we don't want
Speaker 1: that guy, I think it hurts a little different. Now.
Speaker 1: You can go ask somebody in the Green Bay Packers
Speaker 1: who hadn't seen a lot of me on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: and they just said, now we don't want that guy.
Speaker 1: For whatever reason, I can live with that. They see
Speaker 1: you come to work, you you do what you're supposed
Speaker 1: to do, you do it the right way. And let's
Speaker 1: be honest, you on in the corner on the other
Speaker 1: side of you is you know, maybe not doing You're
Speaker 1: doing a lot of talking, but maybe not showing up
Speaker 1: the right way. You know. Yeah, yeah, absolutely right, And
Speaker 1: just that we're gonna get a little bit later too.
Speaker 1: The only different player, right, totally different, which which is fine.
Speaker 1: But you know, I was what I was. I showed
Speaker 1: you what I showed you, and you still it still
Speaker 1: wasn't enough. So it so that their opinion affected me
Speaker 1: more than anybody else's opinion. How did it affect you, Well,
Speaker 1: it made me second at the time, at the time
Speaker 1: at the time. At the time, you gotta think I'm young.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm hungry. I'm just trying to get to
Speaker 1: that next contract, right, and I'm like, well, what am
Speaker 1: I doing wrong that they won't pay me? But my
Speaker 1: agent would always check me, right, He's like, look, you're
Speaker 1: not one of the guys, like they didn't draft you.
Speaker 1: You know, that's not about the team. Summer I got drafted,
Speaker 1: Charlie Castle drafted me. So it wasn't there was never
Speaker 1: any real connection, right, So the next year they draft
Speaker 1: LaVar Arrington and Chris Samuels two and three. LaVar Arrington
Speaker 1: re up before I even got to come last year, like,
Speaker 1: so the writing was on the wall. It was just
Speaker 1: hard to believe, you know, because like, you know, I've
Speaker 1: had some real success here, you know, and a little
Speaker 1: bit like what's really going on? You know, nobody could
Speaker 1: really explain it. We were just in a different time.
Speaker 1: You still got pretty much a young owner trying to
Speaker 1: figure out what the hell he's doing. And you know,
Speaker 1: it was what it was. Man, Man, I've never told
Speaker 1: you this, and I've been I've been holding this, so
Speaker 1: you know, obviously I went to University of Utah and
Speaker 1: Georgia had played Utah State, okay, and we obviously we
Speaker 1: didn't play Georgia, but we had to play Utah State.
Speaker 1: So I you know, I was a dream house transfer,
Speaker 1: so I transfer. And at the time, social media is
Speaker 1: not social media. You know, internet is not even the Internet.
Speaker 1: So the West Coast, if you didn't play on the
Speaker 1: West Coast, you really didn't know about East Coast players. Right,
Speaker 1: We're watching film. I'm in the University of Utah. We're
Speaker 1: watching film and we're watching Utah State, and so, you know,
Speaker 1: watching their defense and you play a little bit offense.
Speaker 1: But then I I think I used to call it
Speaker 1: pass or something, and I'm like, man, I gotta watch
Speaker 1: this dude, because they say he's playing both ways. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna watch the defensive film. I'm not gonna say
Speaker 1: I was scared, but I would say I had to
Speaker 1: take a few times. How about that? It super duper, bro.
Speaker 1: I've been knowing about you ever since Georgia ran through
Speaker 1: Utah State and you I don't even know which receiver
Speaker 1: it was what you was out there locking him down
Speaker 1: like it was like ordering a bag of fries through
Speaker 1: the drive through. It was so casual and so we
Speaker 1: gotta we get to play the Washington Commanders. Stephen Davis
Speaker 1: is the running back. You know. He came to Carolina
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna I have to go against cham Bailey.
Speaker 1: Now this is how old and dated it was. I
Speaker 1: have VHS. Was the VHS? I think it was VHS
Speaker 1: or Beta on you? Right? And I had one tape
Speaker 1: on you because that's what they gave us. Hey studied
Speaker 1: this film. They said, studies has failed. So I studied
Speaker 1: that film and when we played against m you guys
Speaker 1: in two thousand three, you were the first player and
Speaker 1: my young career. I was in my third year, but
Speaker 1: my second year starting that, I was followed everywhere. I
Speaker 1: can tell you right now. I studied the film. They
Speaker 1: should have gave me an instruction manual on how to study,
Speaker 1: because what I studied was not what I played against.
Speaker 1: I did not I played at Utah. I never expected
Speaker 1: a guy to follow me everywhere and be so close
Speaker 1: up on me that I can see him if he
Speaker 1: had a fresh shave, right, I can see if he
Speaker 1: was wearing contacts. And bro, I just remember you pressed
Speaker 1: up against me in the first play. I gave you
Speaker 1: a little I gave you a little quick move and
Speaker 1: call a little en route and I got to spend
Speaker 1: the ball. You were like, okay, good job, good job,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm about to get this, ninja.
Speaker 1: I don't know what they talked about, what him, but
Speaker 1: they say you taught State. Hey man, that was that
Speaker 1: was the good old days. Because you gotta think, like
Speaker 1: they really let me do what I wanted to do. Yes,
Speaker 1: they did, yes they so so after that the next play,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember, I gave the same
Speaker 1: move and you jammed me so hard that it made
Speaker 1: my not one both of my show the Past traps
Speaker 1: come off. I was not prepared. I was not prepared
Speaker 1: at all that we're gonna we're gonna stop. Because part
Speaker 1: of that is also why I win. A couple of
Speaker 1: years later when he was with Minnesota got what he
Speaker 1: got because when we played the Commanders, I only remember
Speaker 1: going against you, mm hmm. Twenty four and eighty nine
Speaker 1: was only two people that were allowed to be in
Speaker 1: that area Coach Moose and had that guy. He was
Speaker 1: not allowed to cover me if I came on this side. You, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: he's over there. He you you told him to go move.
Speaker 1: And I never experienced that. They even lined me up
Speaker 1: I think like tight in or running back, and he
Speaker 1: lined up a damn linebacker. Look that's real. I was
Speaker 1: unprepared for linebacker. I was like, okay, they're gonna get
Speaker 1: me free. He lined up a linebacker, I said, and
Speaker 1: I know I shouldn't come. I said, oh shit, you
Speaker 1: know I'm gonna. I used to look forward to win
Speaker 1: a receiver with move in the backfield or line up,
Speaker 1: because then I know you're not really going deep. So
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, I got I got a lot of
Speaker 1: I got more help in this little box because you can't. Man,
Speaker 1: I thought that was I thought that was my saving grace,
Speaker 1: not not no life preserve or nothing. I was just
Speaker 1: in the water. So so you gotta think, like my
Speaker 1: mindset about you was, Oh, this guy's a great returner,
Speaker 1: he's tough, he's a dog. I can't let him get
Speaker 1: going like that was my thing. I can't let you
Speaker 1: just get comfortable, getting open, you know, having free releases,
Speaker 1: like once you get going, I've seen it, I've seen
Speaker 1: how you dog people. I'm like, no, I cannot let
Speaker 1: him get going because once he does that, it's over.
Speaker 1: It's over. You taught me. I was in that game,
Speaker 1: you know, I was figuring out releases as we were going. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like I had never I had never been in that
Speaker 1: position in my life. I had never had to go
Speaker 1: against a guy, and I used it, and I used
Speaker 1: to say it. If I was driving a car, I
Speaker 1: pull up of the parking attendant and y'll have to
Speaker 1: be right there giving me my ticket. I walked up
Speaker 1: to the valet chaps like you key, Steve Right. I
Speaker 1: had never experienced that until that moment, because we were
Speaker 1: still early. It was like third or fourth game. I
Speaker 1: was never I was never ready for that. I saw shadows. Oh,
Speaker 1: you know, you'll get a guy, he'll be there. But
Speaker 1: you were right there. You didn't want space off you
Speaker 1: on it did to be right there. And I was
Speaker 1: so frustrated because I never experienced that before, especially as
Speaker 1: a young man. Right especially I went to University of Utah.
Speaker 1: We're playing non athletic zone team, so I understood zone.
Speaker 1: I knew how to play in zone. I came out
Speaker 1: of college very well versed with the knowledge of how
Speaker 1: to run routes versus zone. I was not used to
Speaker 1: that type of coverage, and I was so frustrated and discouraged.
Speaker 1: But I have a save. I had a saving grace,
Speaker 1: a receiver named Ricky Pro. And Ricky kept coming over
Speaker 1: and to me said, I know you're frustrated. This is
Speaker 1: the this is the part of being the number one,
Speaker 1: number one guy. You have to figure it out. Don't
Speaker 1: let him frustrate. You keep going taking everything he was
Speaker 1: doing this data right, So we go fast forward. I
Speaker 1: think I had like three passes. Um they quit going
Speaker 1: to me because it was just you can go ahead
Speaker 1: and just remove me from the playbook. Basically that's what
Speaker 1: you did. But then we go in that end zone.
Speaker 1: We go, we're going in there, We're trying to drive
Speaker 1: and I'm in a slot and when I make that catch,
Speaker 1: the only reason I was able to make that catch
Speaker 1: is because you drugged me through the mud for three
Speaker 1: and a half quarters. It was it was like it
Speaker 1: was like but you understand it was that was the
Speaker 1: only move I had left that actually meant anything, because
Speaker 1: after everything after that, everything got through boom boom. And
Speaker 1: so when I went up, I don't even know if
Speaker 1: you remember. I went up. So I gave a little
Speaker 1: release it was it's called huntry circle, and I was
Speaker 1: the streak. So they were running. They were running covered two,
Speaker 1: but Champ was man coverage because forty seven was forty seven,
Speaker 1: uh forty one. It was a Caucasian safe. Yeah, Matt
Speaker 1: bon right, and so I run. I give it a
Speaker 1: little release, but instead of dancing like I kept doing,
Speaker 1: I gave him a little two steps and took off
Speaker 1: right and they and Jake throws it up and I
Speaker 1: jump up and grunt because I know everybody in the
Speaker 1: mom is gonna try to knock the snot out of me,
Speaker 1: and so I go up. Champ so smart. He jumps,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't jump all the way because he knew
Speaker 1: we both can jump, so he jumped a little bit
Speaker 1: and waited too. I came when I was coming down
Speaker 1: to jump up so he could put those little skinny
Speaker 1: fingers through through me. But I already had figured it out,
Speaker 1: so I cuffed it and bowing hit me so hard
Speaker 1: he hit you, yes, and then Stephen Davis. Some people
Speaker 1: say it wasn't a touchdown. It was a touchdown. Don't matter.
Speaker 1: It was a touchdown. And what's interesting is I played
Speaker 1: against a lot of good corners. I played a lot
Speaker 1: of against a lot of great corners, but there are
Speaker 1: some guys like you. You helped me because you were
Speaker 1: one of the best corners that I ever played against.
Speaker 1: And man, you did so much for my career that
Speaker 1: you didn't even know it. You you made me play
Speaker 1: chess for the very first time I've been playing football
Speaker 1: because most of the other corners it was checkers. It
Speaker 1: was a race to get king and then just kill
Speaker 1: a board. But I had to be strategic, man and all.
Speaker 1: And so I've never really thanked the anybody for an
Speaker 1: ashal thee, but I appreciate it because you taught me
Speaker 1: so much and I've always had that respect for you.
Speaker 1: And then we fast forward against UM. We played you guys,
Speaker 1: the Carolina Panthers against against you with the UM with
Speaker 1: the Denver Broncos, and you were hurt. And I had
Speaker 1: like five like in that off season when I knew
Speaker 1: we were playing you, I told I want, I want
Speaker 1: all his plays. I had all old every player you
Speaker 1: played the year before, So it was up the beta
Speaker 1: DVDs laser. I had all of your tation. I just
Speaker 1: watched it and watched the film. Then I think you
Speaker 1: had a labor or something. Yeah, I can't remember what
Speaker 1: I was out for But it was a night game, right,
Speaker 1: it was a night game. I just remember sitting over
Speaker 1: there watching you just run through. I was so hyped
Speaker 1: to play and he wasn't playing. Let me tell you something,
Speaker 1: Dre blin gonna, Man, I drugged Dre. That's one dude.
Speaker 1: Don't care. He's not ashamed to anything. You'll tell Smith
Speaker 1: stiff on the hell out of it. He was like, man,
Speaker 1: he hit me in the chance and that you could
Speaker 1: just hit I'm like, yeah, that's Steve. But Dog, you
Speaker 1: ran through us. And he he ragged all the corner
Speaker 1: that was. He had that boy about the about the
Speaker 1: water jugs on a running play. I'm like, I'm like,
Speaker 1: are you better get because I never because I can't play.
Speaker 1: You know, was strongest on rag Dog and we had
Speaker 1: the smallest one in the league. I won't say his name,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna say his name. But I was so
Speaker 1: hyped to go against Chap. I wasn't hyped to go
Speaker 1: against because I got something. I just know I had
Speaker 1: to be on my pisa ques. I still had post
Speaker 1: traumatic stress from the last time I played, Right, That's
Speaker 1: what I experience. So then we fast forward to twenty
Speaker 1: two thousand five, and you know, we had traded for
Speaker 1: Rod Gardner and Rod comes to Carolina and him and
Speaker 1: Fresh Mood they used to be boys. And so Rod starts,
Speaker 1: Rod starts talking to Smooth and I say something. I
Speaker 1: said something to Rock draft. They were drafted together, so
Speaker 1: I know, so they were real close, and so they're
Speaker 1: talking and I'm like, bro, man, we ain't you know,
Speaker 1: we ain't chit chatting with these with these dudes, and
Speaker 1: Smooth I guess at that time, yes, I don't remember
Speaker 1: what he could have said, peanut, butter and jelly, It
Speaker 1: really didn't matter. And I took offense to him, and
Speaker 1: then I made it personal and I started going the
Speaker 1: last time you was here, you wasn't even allowed to
Speaker 1: cover me and the rest of his history. And and
Speaker 1: that was actually why that was the personal beef was
Speaker 1: actually it wasn't even personal. It was a I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure friend wasn't even talking to me. Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: drummed up this like okay, cool, and so that was
Speaker 1: a whole that was a whole reason over it. And
Speaker 1: I guess we've been uh, I guess we You would
Speaker 1: say we've been bicker and ever since. But I wouldn't
Speaker 1: really necessarily call it bicker because I did and really
Speaker 1: think about it. But yeah, well, funny story, um that
Speaker 1: before that night game, one of our backup quarterbacks came
Speaker 1: in the locker room. I think, y'all, y'all you were
Speaker 1: out pre game? Oh so yeah, so we were Denver.
Speaker 1: I was out in pre game and I had a
Speaker 1: routine and I would catch Brandon Marshall huh was catching passes.
Speaker 1: And the backup quarterback proceeds to tell me, he shoot me, yeah,
Speaker 1: hey man, we're catching passes. Man, move on. Now, we
Speaker 1: were in Denver. I can respect that. Right at night
Speaker 1: we were in Carolina. He tells me to move and
Speaker 1: then best a man. The quarterback says, move you're talking
Speaker 1: about hot as fish grist. Yeah, so I think that
Speaker 1: go ahead. That added some still to that fire that night. Right.
Speaker 1: That's why Drey Black got in business. That's why. So
Speaker 1: what happened in your locker room? So yeah, so he
Speaker 1: he comes in the locker room. Man, you better go
Speaker 1: get your boy out there. You better go get your boy.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what's going on? Man? Your boy Steve out
Speaker 1: there talking all this ship and got to y'all to y'all.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, don't mess with this dude, Like why
Speaker 1: y'all gonna get him started? And I swear from the
Speaker 1: first snap, I was like, oh, it's about to be
Speaker 1: a long night. I mean, because I knew they already
Speaker 1: got to you, got you mad, got you talking, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, it's about to be a long night.
Speaker 1: And I couldn't do nothing about it. I was just like, man,
Speaker 1: don't don't don't mess with him. If you get him talking,
Speaker 1: he's gonna come at me. The backup quarterback tells me,
Speaker 1: go on, we were working here. I mean to be honest,
Speaker 1: he wasn't the backup. He was probably third string of squad.
Speaker 1: You know, back quarterbacks travel regardless of practice squad or not.
Speaker 1: They travel, right, So I don't even think I didn't
Speaker 1: know that. I didn't know the young man. I could
Speaker 1: not recall who he was. You know. It's funny, good,
Speaker 1: good dude. You love him to death, But boy, he
Speaker 1: made a mistake that night. Right. I would say he
Speaker 1: was pudgy for a quarterback. I saw he was. He
Speaker 1: definitely still. He had a retirement body, you know what,
Speaker 1: He had a cannon. But boy, you think but he
Speaker 1: man pudgy quarterback from Atlanta talks a lot like good dude, Man,
Speaker 1: good dude, you would love it, but not that night.
Speaker 1: I bet I would have. Good God, let's getting down
Speaker 1: to it. Hey, Gerard, why did you get that T shirt?
Speaker 1: You mean this thing? Oh yes, I got it from
Speaker 1: cut to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise.
Speaker 1: Shout out to our guys at seven or four shot.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you can go on by your T shirts,
Speaker 1: subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. So what
Speaker 1: are you up to these days? Oh? Man? You know
Speaker 1: when I retired, Man, I'm not gonna lie. You know,
Speaker 1: I think when you play and you play a long time,
Speaker 1: you think, Okay, I'm gonna retire and I'm gonna just chill. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you realize, like I can't just sit around, you know,
Speaker 1: I gotta be for you. Try though. You tried to,
Speaker 1: tried to the fullest. You know. I tried, you know,
Speaker 1: doing a little broadcast and didn't like it. How do
Speaker 1: you like that? I hated it? I hated it. You know,
Speaker 1: you think when you start out, everything is a little scripted, right,
Speaker 1: And I just didn't like I didn't like the setting
Speaker 1: of you know, going to l a putting on a suit,
Speaker 1: being in front of the camera. Then it's kind of scripted.
Speaker 1: I couldn't really be myself, so it was just it
Speaker 1: was tough. It was a grind, and I didn't like
Speaker 1: that grind. I didn't like that. You know, I love
Speaker 1: talking about football, but now in that way, So I
Speaker 1: tried that issues. I'm glad I tried it though, right,
Speaker 1: So you know, I, you know, I tried to do
Speaker 1: other little things. But what I realized, man as out
Speaker 1: here in this real world, like people don't have accountability standards.
Speaker 1: There's just everybody's out here for themselves. So you really
Speaker 1: want to get something done, you almost got to do
Speaker 1: it yourself. Oh I you know, I tried a few
Speaker 1: things invest in this on some real estate deals, and
Speaker 1: you know, people just don't care. Like everybody's out for themselves.
Speaker 1: So now I'm just you know, I do a few
Speaker 1: things here and there, but I partnered with bigger companies
Speaker 1: who actually, you know, got investors to worry about, and
Speaker 1: people bigger than me, you know, that are investing in
Speaker 1: these companies, are spending time with these companies. So now
Speaker 1: I know the credibility comes in the door. Right when
Speaker 1: some of these companies. So you know, for example, I
Speaker 1: partnered with this company needs Peach State Health Plan and
Speaker 1: you know they provide Medicare Medicaid in the state of Georgia.
Speaker 1: But their parent company is a you know, a global company,
Speaker 1: Fortune five company ran by this got it went to
Speaker 1: Georgia's So when I moved back to Atlanta, I realized
Speaker 1: the strength of my network just being a former bulldog,
Speaker 1: like wow, Like there's people everywhere all the walk cars
Speaker 1: and people I went to school with. They're are owning
Speaker 1: businesses now. So it's nothing for me to walk in
Speaker 1: a lot of different doors and just and just be
Speaker 1: part of their marketing plan or their messaging to some degree,
Speaker 1: or if I'm doing an event, they come sponsor. So
Speaker 1: those are the type of partnerships I focus on now,
Speaker 1: and I leverage those to get me into deals that
Speaker 1: otherwise wouldn't be involved with. And that's kind of what
Speaker 1: I focus on now. It's no heavy lifting. I mean,
Speaker 1: my sister, My sister does a lot of stuff for me,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, because I could trust her, you know,
Speaker 1: after going through different paths and different people, I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I gotta just stick with my family and and work
Speaker 1: like that, and that's that's what I focus on now.
Speaker 1: So I'm fielding ship all the time, but I deflect
Speaker 1: of it because you got any time I gotta depend
Speaker 1: on somebody else. It's gonna take you a lot to
Speaker 1: earn my respect and give you the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1: I can't. I don't go in with blinders on no more.
Speaker 1: You think people just want to work and do things
Speaker 1: the right way. That ain't the case. That ain't the case.
Speaker 1: People will shift on you in the heartbeat and keep
Speaker 1: it moving like it never happened. And that's happened a
Speaker 1: few times. And good for me, I can overcome. How
Speaker 1: has it been for you and fathering? You know, now
Speaker 1: that you're you're your home or you're able to be
Speaker 1: locked in, you don't have you know, you don't have
Speaker 1: a you don't have tape to watch. You don't have
Speaker 1: UH treatment to go to or or or do you
Speaker 1: don't have these nagging things that UM being a professional athlete, um,
Speaker 1: you know you have to do. You know, my twelve
Speaker 1: year old he's so much like me, right, so he's
Speaker 1: like my older son. He's twenty one. Now. You know,
Speaker 1: I was gone most of the time, me and his mom.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously didn't land well, I'm gonna say obviously,
Speaker 1: but we didn't last so there was a lot of
Speaker 1: absence there and to see how he came up compared
Speaker 1: to now, I'm full time with my twelve year old,
Speaker 1: so I see all the little things that he goes
Speaker 1: through everyday, school, you know, sports, he's a little athlete,
Speaker 1: and to be able to sit there and kind of
Speaker 1: have him focus on the right things. And I think
Speaker 1: that's what what I wasn't able to do with my
Speaker 1: older son, is have him focus on the right things
Speaker 1: and like pay attention to the right things. For example,
Speaker 1: Like my twelve year old has had some bad coaches,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I've had way more bad coaches than
Speaker 1: you have. Trust me, when you learn how to overcome
Speaker 1: bad coaching, you're on your way because you're gonna have
Speaker 1: an abundance of Like there's coaches out there coaching. They
Speaker 1: just got a job because they know somebody. So you're
Speaker 1: gonna come across that. You just gotta be able to
Speaker 1: identify and move past them. Right, don't count on anybody
Speaker 1: to get you ready, you know, brother, that's in school practice.
Speaker 1: You better be a self motivated individual. So find out
Speaker 1: what motivates you and let that be your spark. So
Speaker 1: it's just just overcoming the negativity around you. Do you
Speaker 1: believe that our kids have more negativity around them than us? Well? No,
Speaker 1: or is it? Or is it? Is it because of
Speaker 1: social media? Media more accessible? I think percentage wise they don't.
Speaker 1: When I think about how I grew up, the negativity
Speaker 1: was around me all the time, all the time, and
Speaker 1: then you and then you at the games, and it's
Speaker 1: there you at the games, just at the snack bar,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's deals being done underneath the bleachers right
Speaker 1: when you drive home or if you take the bus home,
Speaker 1: right or when you have to walk home. And me
Speaker 1: and my wife have this conversation, I say that, you know,
Speaker 1: She's like, man, it's just so much more now than
Speaker 1: our kids. I don't think it's more. I think it's
Speaker 1: I think it's easily accessible in our face more. But
Speaker 1: it's always like we know, kids are you know, we
Speaker 1: call it sex trafficking now, but kids was on milk
Speaker 1: boxes and then the post office all the time. Seek
Speaker 1: content is more prevalent now, Like you see things more,
Speaker 1: there's more videos, it's more, there's more access to what's
Speaker 1: really going on in the world. But you also have
Speaker 1: good things that your fingertips as well. Right, there's more
Speaker 1: good information out there, but to be able to discipher
Speaker 1: between the two, it's probably a little more challenging, right.
Speaker 1: I think for me growing up, we it was negativity everywhere.
Speaker 1: You see some positive things here and there, but it
Speaker 1: was in our face. It wasn't like I could go
Speaker 1: get on the internet and see what my counterparts are
Speaker 1: doing in l A. I never knew on the West Coast.
Speaker 1: It was all like right here in this little box.
Speaker 1: And you know, if you don't know things are existing
Speaker 1: in this world, then you don't have any aspirations to
Speaker 1: do them right. So it was real like there's more
Speaker 1: examples for kids now positive things going on then when
Speaker 1: I grew up, because all I had was who I saw,
Speaker 1: who I was around uncle's, the you know, the older
Speaker 1: cousins and the neighbors, all those people that fell into
Speaker 1: those traps. There was more of that than somebody go
Speaker 1: off to college and get be a doctor, a great job,
Speaker 1: to be a professor. That just didn't happen. Bro I
Speaker 1: can name on one hand how many people did that.
Speaker 1: When I was doing up if you don't mind me asking,
Speaker 1: knowing what you you said about your oldest and you
Speaker 1: know the situation with playing football right being in the height,
Speaker 1: being at the point of your career, moving to Denver.
Speaker 1: How are you able to stay engaged now that you're
Speaker 1: done and he's adult to mend that relationship. And I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that relationship because I'm just speaking. I'm assuming because
Speaker 1: I got twenty four years, and I know there were
Speaker 1: things that I missed out on consciously and subconsciously that
Speaker 1: I didn't know I was missing out on because I
Speaker 1: was too busy trying to find my own way, how
Speaker 1: to be a professional, trying to figure out how to
Speaker 1: make how to get this second and his third and
Speaker 1: his fourth contract, and then also being a father at
Speaker 1: the same time and trying to be a husband at
Speaker 1: the same time. I was gonna miss something, and I
Speaker 1: missed several things. You miss a lot, and I think
Speaker 1: you can't make that time up, like you really can't.
Speaker 1: And because those are some crucial years, because you know,
Speaker 1: as you know, as you're maturing as a teenager man,
Speaker 1: you absorbed so much ship I mean negative positive, You're
Speaker 1: just yeah, and I can't go back and get that
Speaker 1: I think now it has to be a mutual thing.
Speaker 1: And that's that's been the struggle is because all he
Speaker 1: remembers is I wasn't there enough, right, So there's a
Speaker 1: little animosity, there's some, but then it also takes it
Speaker 1: often takes more than just me and him trying to
Speaker 1: do it. It takes our whole family trying to help,
Speaker 1: you know, his mom. So if I don't have that support,
Speaker 1: and it's really an uphill battle. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: where we are now, trying to figure out what that
Speaker 1: looks like. My thing is, Look, I'm here. You call me,
Speaker 1: you want you want to sit out and talk, I'm here.
Speaker 1: That's that's my thing now, is I want to let
Speaker 1: you know that I'm here all the time, like there's
Speaker 1: no point in my in my day, then I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna make time you like. I think if I can
Speaker 1: make that message very clear, then that's the road to
Speaker 1: recovering what we have left together. And you know, I
Speaker 1: think he's at a point now he's trying to figure
Speaker 1: out who he is right, trying to figure out who
Speaker 1: he is. You know, he's he went to college on
Speaker 1: a football scholarship. Now he's in limbo because he wanted
Speaker 1: to transfer, which is a whole another conversation, you know.
Speaker 1: So so it's it's it's me trying to give those advice,
Speaker 1: the advice that he needs, but also understanding that I'm
Speaker 1: still just dad, you know, and we all have that
Speaker 1: struggle with getting our kids to listen. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I think every parent their their kids are
Speaker 1: probably gonna listen to somebody else more than they listen
Speaker 1: to the parent. You know, absolutely, I don't know anything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't know ship that's all you done. You know nothing.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, man, anybody trying to walk down this
Speaker 1: path or being a professional athlete in any sport, like
Speaker 1: you can't have a better example than me, Like you
Speaker 1: can't have a better support staff than me. So that's
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of where we are. And you know,
Speaker 1: I don't I'm not the type of look back. I'm
Speaker 1: always trying to figure out how we go forward, how
Speaker 1: we make things better. So you know, even with everybody
Speaker 1: and my family, brothers, sister, mom, that everybody, there's there's
Speaker 1: been some disconnect throughout the years, but you know, let's
Speaker 1: how we move forward. I'm a good natured, good hearted person,
Speaker 1: and I think they all know that. So that's always
Speaker 1: gonna precede me. So it always gives me a chance
Speaker 1: to men those relationships. All right, So that's your last one.
Speaker 1: How's your how you? How's your skin coming along? Last
Speaker 1: time we saw what was the beginning of COVID and
Speaker 1: we were in Yeah, Beaver Creek. Yeah, like two of
Speaker 1: the most none scares you believe. He's like, stick, what
Speaker 1: are you doing? We both look at each other skin
Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere. But I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: I ski once since then. So I'm about to say
Speaker 1: waki every year, bro. But I remember you telling me
Speaker 1: at the time that you know your Utah days got
Speaker 1: you right? So I never had it. Man. That was
Speaker 1: the first time I put a ski on my foot,
Speaker 1: and you lived in Denver. It didn't matter. The thing
Speaker 1: was I was playing football and I had never done
Speaker 1: Why would I risk going out here on this when
Speaker 1: I was all the time when I was playing, I
Speaker 1: never had anybody come to me and say, hey, you
Speaker 1: should do this. No. I was just always scared to
Speaker 1: do anything outside of training, you know, because I just ridden. Man,
Speaker 1: I used to jet ski ski. Yeah, you were you
Speaker 1: were a bigger man than me because I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: To this day, I still have a fear of falling,
Speaker 1: so you know you're gonna fall. I realized the snow
Speaker 1: was a little softer than the ground, so a lot.
Speaker 1: It's the trees that I get, you, Hey, but I
Speaker 1: get a kid out of watching my well. He was
Speaker 1: nine or eight or nine at the time. Man, my son,
Speaker 1: he got on those skis sail a few times and
Speaker 1: he was down to blacks. I mean it was, it was.
Speaker 1: It was good to see. I'm like, man, I won't
Speaker 1: do I won't do blacks because, uh, my knees feels
Speaker 1: so good until I get on a black and then
Speaker 1: my knees I heard. Yeah, I'm scared of the greens.
Speaker 1: So you know that's where I'm at right now. So no,
Speaker 1: Steve Smith was scared of the champion, champion, scared of
Speaker 1: the greens on damn. Hey, Man, Appreciate you, bro always. Bro.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm here. Appreciate you. Just call me bro.
Speaker 1: You are a unique person. You are well worth it,
Speaker 1: you are competent, and most of all, you're lovable. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior, I'm ger little John and this is
Speaker 1: cut to it. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior.
Speaker 1: That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC,
Speaker 1: Balto Creative Media, The Black Effect and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcast from i Heart Radio, visit the i
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows from Cut to It, Executive producer Steve Smith,
Speaker 1: SINGR co host Gerard Little John, talent and booking manager
Speaker 1: Joe Fusci, social media teamer Wesley Robinson, and John Show
Speaker 1: from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by
Speaker 1: Brian Baltaschevitch and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek,
Speaker 1: Production coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics
Speaker 1: and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it, then,
Speaker 1: we're about to let you Now it's all old test